Decision CRTC 2001-271
Ottawa, 18 May 2001
Mr. Leslie Sole
Executive Vice-President, Television
Rogers Media
CFMT
545 Lake Shore Blvd. West
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 1A3
FAX: (416) 260-3680
and
Mr. Joe Chan
President
Fairchild Television Ltd.
B8 – 525 West Broadway,
Vancouver, B.C.
V5Z 4K5
FAX: (604) 708-1300
Subject: Complaint resolution - CFMT-TV vrs Fairchild TV -
Unauthorized operation of Fairchild TV specialty service as two regional feeds
Dear Sirs:
The Commission has completed its review of the submissions of the parties on this matter involving the initial letter of complaint dated 2 November 2000, as well as subsequent letters of 19 January and 7 February 2001 from CFMT-TV Toronto and the letters of response dated 13 December 2000, and 31 January 2001 from Fairchild Television Ltd. ("Fairchild").
CFMT has requested that the Commission direct Fairchild to cease and desist from distributing its Fairchild TV specialty service as two unauthorized regional feeds. While Fairchild has acknowledged the distribution of Fairchild TV as two separate regional feeds, it has argued that this plan was included as part of its 1997 licence renewal application. Decision CRTC
97-535, however, does not address the Fairchild TV separate feed proposal and, absent specific approval, it cannot be concluded that the Commission has authorized the use of separate regional feeds.
Additionally, the Commission’s review of the Fairchild TV licence shows that it is absent of any condition of licence or authority permitting the distribution of the service as two separate feeds. Based on the foregoing, the Commission hereby directs Fairchild to immediately resume the distribution of its authorized Fairchild TV service as a single national feed. In addition, the Commission directs Fairchild to notify the Commission by letter (with a copy to CFMT), upon the execution of this direction.
We note that many of the issues raised by CFMT are similar to those contained in its intervention dated November 3, 2000 in response to Fairchild’s application for authority to distribute its Talentvision specialty service across Canada. The Commission has approved this application in Decision CRTC
2001-270 dated 18 May 2001. Fairchild has committed in its response dated 13 December 2000, that approval of its Talentvision application will result in Fairchild TV and Talentvision programming separate national Chinese-language specialty services. Accordingly, the Commission expects Fairchild TV to continue to program predominantly Cantonese-language programming and Talentvision to continue to program predominantly Mandarin-language programming.
With respect to CFMT’s concern regarding Fairchild’s practice of broadcasting separate local commercials, we note that Fairchild TV’s renewal application (Decision CRTC
97-535) set out this authority that by condition of licence: "During each clock hour, the licensee shall broadcast not more than eight minutes of commercial messages of which no more than four minutes shall be local commercial messages." This condition of license was subsequently amended in Decision CRTC
98-138 to "…not more than twelve minutes of commercial messages of which no more than six minutes shall be local commercial messages."
Based on the foregoing, the Commission is satisfied that this matter has been resolved. For your information, all correspondence will be placed on Fairchild TV’s public file and will be reviewed at the time of its licence renewal.
Sincerely
Ursula Menke
Secretary General
|
